Hope for a New Earth/Us: (Re)imagining Asian American Ecofeminist Theology through Planetary Entanglements

This project (re)imagines Asian American ecofeminist theology through planetary entanglements, offering a decolonizing, relational, and future-oriented response to ecological collapse, climate crisis, and pandemic precarity. Drawing on Judith Butler’s phenomenology of vulnerability and Catherine Keller’s panentheistic ecotheology, it situates ethical and theological reflection within the interdependence of human and more-than-human life. Central to both method and message are two Korean concepts: salim (살림), “enlivening” or "sustaining life", and jeong (정), "relational affectivity and "care". These concepts function as metaphor and ethical lens, showing how contextual, everyday ecofeminist practices—acts of care, repair, and co-flourishing—embody hope for planetary futures while enacting a decolonizing ethic that resists hierarchical and instrumental logics. Salim and jeong provide frameworks for (re)imagining ecological and social interdependence, situating hope as one of many therapeutic-paths within broader ecotheology. The study advances a decolonial theology of Hope, envisioning a new Earth/us co-created through care, relational integrity, and transformative planetary engagement.